And Now for the Rumors Behind the News

Noe Knows

By Mazook

Parklet
Poll

The
Noe
Valley Merchants and Professionals Association conducted a “Parklet
Survey” of
Noe Valley businesses in early September. Here are the results,
announced by
Merchants president Robert Roddick on Sept. 14. The number of
respondents to
the survey was 30.

Are
you in favor of the trial parklet concept?

Yes
72%
No 28%

Would
the elimination of two parking spaces on your block
interfere with your business?

Yes
32%
No 68%

Would
the creation of a parklet be beneficial to your business?

Yes
64%
No 36%

In
the design of a parklet, which of the following do you find
more acceptable?

Tables/chairs
56%

Benches
64%

Stand-up
Bar
12%

Bicycle
security
post 40%

Trash/recyclable
container
36%

Locations
in order of popularity (the
survey asked for
two suggestions):

Martha
&
Bros.–Holey Bagel

Real
Food
Company

Toast/Starbucks

Just
for
Fun

La
Boulange

Ministry
parking
lot

PARKLET
PLACE: When
we left you last
month, the Noe Valley Merchants and Professionals Association was
getting ready
to poll businesses in Noe Valley as to their views on “parklets.” Those
are the
platforms with seating and potted plants that the city’s Pavement to
Parks
program (P2P) wants to try out instead of parking places in a couple of
locations on 24th Street.

Well,
the
results are in, and it’s clear that the majority of shops think
parklets
would be beneficial.

The
Merchants
emailed the survey to its 88 members and also canvassed about 50
non-member businesses along the 24th Street strip. However, only 30
businesses
responded to the poll, the Noe Valley Bureau of Weights and Measures
has been
sorry to learn.

Of
those
eager beavers, about three-quarters said they were in favor of the
parklet
concept, and two-thirds said the parklets would not interfere with
their
businesses. (See box at right.)

Their
choices
for best location for the parklets were no surprise. They ranked
Martha’s coffee shop and Holey Bagel first, then Real Food’s old
storefront,
and then the Toast/Starbucks corner. Next came Just for Fun, La
Boulange, and
the Noe Valley Ministry parking lot at 24th and Vicksburg.

The
spots
eventually chosen will depend not so much on the survey, but on the
businesses’ willingness to share responsibility—with the city and our
community
benefit district, the Noe Valley Association—for the upkeep of the
parklets.

Real
Food
is not in business—it’s been vacant for seven years—so that’s out as a
location. Toast and Starbucks, at the corner of 24th and Noe streets,
are on
the ground floor of the Elvira Building, owned by the McFadden family.
FYI,
Elvira resident Mary McFadden confirmed the rumor that when P2P asked
the
family’s opinion, the 10 McFadden siblings took a vote: two were for
parklets
and eight against.

The
survey
results, according to Merchants president Bob Roddick, were emailed to
the city (and to Roddick’s email list) the second week in September. A
week
later, Roddick informed the members of his association that Andres
Power, head of Pavement to Parks, had told him the sites settled
upon by
the Planning Department were Martha’s and Just for Fun.

As
for
confirmation of these sites, Power is keeping his lips sealed—to the Voice anyway.
And
our agents in the field haven’t been able to nail down the timetable
for
installation.

We’ve
been
told to look for a “Dear Noe Valleyan” letter from P2P when all the
parties (property owners, business owners, P2P, and the NVA) have
signed the
papers formalizing the parklet locations. Then we’ll know when the
parklets
will be parked.

*
* *

PARKING
FOR CARS
(not enough) is always an issue for the shops in Downtown Noe
Valley. So the Merchants Association and the NVA took the loss of four
parking
spaces to the parklets as an opportunity to renew their 13-year effort
to win
more angled parking spots on Castro between 24th and Clipper. They
already
managed to get diagonal parking installed on one block: the east side
of Castro
between Jersey and 25th streets (see Voice March 2005).

In
August,
NVA chief Debra Niemann went to a meeting of the Municipal
Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to make a pitch for more stripes,
specifically
the block of Castro Street from 24th to Jersey.

The
SFMTA
put the request on the docket for a public hearing Sept. 17. Merchants
past president Carol Yenne gladly attended the hearing and spoke in
support of
the NVA/Merchants’ plan.

Well,
the
SFMTA listened, and has tentatively agreed to create diagonal parking
on
Castro’s east side between 24th and Jersey, while keeping one parallel
parking
spot nearest to the bus stop. The net gain in parking spots after the
reconfiguration will be two spaces.

MTA
project
engineer Manito Velasco confirms that the proposal with be presented at
the next SFMTA’s meeting on Oct. 19, when he anticipates it will be
approved.
Velasco thinks that once approved, a work order will go out and the job
could
start 30 to 60 days after that. “It could be a little longer,” he
warns, “since
we are currently in the middle of a 1,300 meter-expansion throughout
the city.”

*
* *

PLAYING
THE SLOTS: Meanwhile,
neighborhood busy-bee Todd David asked Supervisor
Bevan Dufty to request that the MTA provide information regarding the
number of
parking spaces in Downtown Noe Valley. (David is a leader of the group
seeking
to turn the Ministry parking lot into a public square. He’s also a
Friend of
Noe Valley who’s been very active of late—see next page.)

SFMTA
CFO
Sonali Bose promptly responded that the “Noe Valley Commercial
District”
(the area bounded by Elizabeth, Chattanooga, Jersey, and Diamond
streets) has
174 on-street meters, 14 off-street meters (at the public lot next to
Le Zinc),
and 50 paid off-street parking spots, for a total of 238 car spaces.
Walgreen’s, which has 21 spaces, minus one for City CarShare, was
included in
the paid parking.

Merchants
president
Roddick, for one, takes exception to the MTA’s numbers, especially
the paid off-street slots. He points out that the Ministry lot at 3865
24th
Street has 29 stalls; however, three are occupied by the Donation
Dumpster and
13 have been reserved, leaving only 13 available to the public.

“As
to
Walgreen’s,” Roddick continues, “the people have the right to park in
the
Walgreen’s lot free for one hour while shopping or conducting business
of any
kind anywhere in Noe Valley. This lot is not for the exclusive use of
Walgreen’s customers. The Friends of Noe Valley brokered this agreement
with the
other neighborhood organizations’ and community support.”

Don’t
worry,
there’s no way we’ll forget that piece of information.

*
* *

A
LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS: The
Friends of Noe
Valley had its annual meeting on Tuesday evening, Sept. 28. It was
attended by
almost 50 neighbors and Friends at James Lick Middle School on Noe
Street. Many
attendees were quite happy to find that free parking was available on
the Lick
playground.

The
first
order of business, after the meeting was called to order by outgoing
president Richard May, was the election of officers and directors for
the
coming year. Todd David was elected president, Gerda Hurter V.P., Beth
Daecher
treasurer, and Elizabeth Ungar the new secretary. All officers are
automatically on the group’s board of directors.

There
were
16 people running for the remaining 15 slots on the board, the maximum
permitted by the Friends’ bylaws. According to FNV founder and its
first
president Claire Pilcher, who attended the meeting, that was the
largest number
of would-be members of the board in the group’s 40-year history (FNV
was
organized in 1971). “There were some years in the seventies when we had
to
struggle to have the minimum [seven] on the board,” noted Pilcher.

The
previous
board met only a couple of times this past year, but David says it
will be meeting more regularly in the future.

The
next
FNV meeting, Oct. 6 at 6:30 p.m., will be a candidates forum for the
District 8
seat on the Board of Supervisors. It will be held at the Randall Museum
auditorium and co-hosted by Friends, Upper Noe Neighbors, the Corona
Heights
Neighborhood Association, and the Diamond Heights Community
Association.

The
forum
will be moderated by Channel 7’s Cheryl Jennings and also will be
televised on SFGTV cable channel 26.

*
* *

TOWN
SQUARE DANCE:
The second order of business was a presentation by the movers and
shakers of a group called Residents for Noe Valley Town Square. This
nonprofit,
which formed this summer to bring to the neighborhood just what its
name says,
held its first community meeting on July 15, which was attended by
almost 120
people. The front page in the September Voice noted that
Todd
David, Chris Keene, and members of the Noe Valley Farmers Market were
spearheading the campaign.

As
most
of you know, the goal is to get the city to buy the large parcel of
land (80 x
100 feet) at 3865 24th Street which is owned by the Noe Valley Ministry
and
currently used as a parking lot (and minipark). The Ministry plans to
sell the
lot to finance the major remodel and seismic upgrade planned next year
for its
church at 1021 Sanchez.

The
city
would buy the land using open space funds, which annually accumulate at
Rec and
Park. By law, the city would have to pay the appraised value of the
Ministry
lot, and not a penny less.

David,
in
his capacity as co-chair of RNVTS, informed the Friends that he had
been
very recently told by Karen Mauney-Brodek, who is project manager of
the
Planning and Capital Division of the Rec and Park Department, that the
property
was appraised at “between three and four million dollars.” (That’s
quite a big
range.)

He
then
went on to say that the group has three hurdles to jump over to create
the
public square. First, a plan has to be presented to the Park,
Recreation, and
Open Space Advisory Committee (PROSAC). If the committee deems the town
square
a worthy and workable project, the proposal then goes to the Recreation
and
Park Commission for approval. If they give the green light, then it
goes to the
Board of Supervisors, who must also give their approval.

Meredith
Thomas,
who is the executive director of the nonprofit Neighborhood Parks
Council (which has been instrumental in helping residents improve
existing
parks all over the city) informed the group that there was about $8
million
currently in the open space fund.

RNVTS
co-chair
Chris Keene, speaking for the Noe Valley Ministry (which originally
acquired the property to keep the space open for the neighborhood),
explained
that the project would need the open space money to purchase the land,
to fund
the renovation into a town square, and to pay for maintenance and
operation of
the park.

According
to
Keene, the Ministry would be a willing seller to the city for a price
within
the appraisal range, and he believed the Noe Valley Association would
be able
to provide
maintenance for
the park. The only thing Noe Valley has to do is come up with the bucks
needed
to construct our “vision” of the new town square. He estimates that
number to
be about $500,000.

Keene
said
quite optimistically that the RNVTS will be looking for and finding Noe
Valley residents who can pledge donations now or pay annually over the
next
five years. He hopes the town square group can go to the PROSAC meeting
in
November with enough money in pledges to show the community’s
commitment.

If
any
of you want to pledge some bucks to this project, today’s the day in a
major
way. Assuming there are 16,000 registered voters in Noe Valley, if each
voter
wrote a check or pledge for $31.25, the $500K would be covered. Folks,
that’s
less than one month’s cable TV. Google Noe Valley Town Square to find
out more.

*
* *

RECIPE
FOR SUCCESS:
Omnivore Books on Food, the little cookbook
store on Cesar Chavez Street, is achieving national recognition. Writes
Reyhan
Harmanci in the Sept. 11 New York Times: “Tucked in a
corner of San
Francisco ’s quiet Noe Valley, Omnivore Books is an unlikely prospect
for a
small-business success story.” But it sure is one, the newspaper goes
on to
say.

In
August,
cookware giant Williams Sonoma asked Omnivore founder and owner Celia
Sack to pick a book each month for its 260 stores nationwide. The store
signs
will say “Omnivore Recommends.” Sack, along with store manager Samantha
Tackeff, will also be sending the chain 250 vintage cookbooks, each
with
personal handwritten recommendations. Those will go on sale at
William-Sonoma’s
30 top stores.

Soon
to
be shipped out is the 1963 classic Candy Hits by Zazu Pitts, as
well as
James Beard’s 1960 edition of Treasury of Outdoor Cooking, and
Duncan
Hines’ classic Food Odyssey (1955).

Sack
is
currently doing some culinary research in Turkey. “She’s having a
fantastic
time,” says Tackeff, “especially because many of us think that Turkey
has the
best food in the world. It is just fantastic!”

As
all
you foodies know, Omnivore hosts many authors’ visits and book
signings—food
icon Alice Waters appeared recently—and the October schedule is quite
impressive, with 14 events.

When
asked
what the store’s most popular item was these days, Tackeff replied,
“Actually, that would be our fresh eggs,” pointing to a space on the
counter
with just two dozen eggs left.

In
other
food news, a new sushi restaurant should be opening Oct. 2 on Church
Street at
Day (where Deep Sushi used to be).

The
folks
who two years ago opened Tataki Sushi & Sake Bar on California
Street
(near Divisadero) decided last spring to open a second venue in Noe
Valley.
Since then, they’ve been wending their way through the permit process.
“Now we
are ready to go,” says co-owner and chef Kin Lui, “and we are looking
forward
to working in that great neighborhood.” The restaurant will be called
Tataki
Sushi & Sake Bar South.

Lui
and
co-chef/owner Raymond Ho have become famous for what they describe as
“a menu
that celebrates the flavors of the ocean while ensuring that every item
is
caught in an environmentally sound manner.” Lui says an example of this
philosophy
is they serve no bluefin tuna, which is endangered and full of mercury,
but
instead serve albacore tuna caught using hand lines. They will use only
wild
Alaskan salmon or arctic char, and never farmed Atlantic salmon, which
he says
“is notorious for parasites and pollutants.”

Lui
says
Tataki’s most popular sushi roll is called “The Extinguisher” and
consists of
albacore and cucumber wrapped with avocado, spicy aioli, habanero, and
fish
eggs. Lui says his personal favorite is the “Russian Roulette Roll.”
Don’t try
it alone.

*
* *

KUDOS
GO OUT to
hair salon Green Twig, which moved recently to 1299 Church
Street, at 25th. It was voted the fifth most popular hair salon in the
city in SFGate.com’s 2010
Best of the Bay contest.

Also,
Noe
Valley phenom the
Elizabeth Street Brewery was selected as Microbrewery of the Year by SF
Weekly. This despite the fact that ESB has never actually sold
a beer,
but rather hosts open houses from time to time where the beer-tasting
is “on
the house.” ESB teamed up earlier this year with another San Francisco
microbrewery, 21st Amendment Brewery, and won the gold medal in the
World Beer
Cup in the “Other Strong Beers” category.

*
* *

THAT’S
30 for
this month. Make sure you all vote on Election Day,
Tuesday, Nov. 2.